Author's Comments: It's been a while, I know. I'm sorry! I hope you enjoy this little chapter and I hope you're doing well this summer.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani/Maxiin.
"What the…?"
Xigbar's voice trailed off as Axel opened his eyes…and balked. It was no longer completely dark around him. Flames sitting in a bowl hanging from the ceiling cast wavering shadows against the walls and the staircase. His footsteps made quiet taps against the mosaic floor as he spun in a slow circle to gape at his surroundings. Along with Xigbar, several other former organization members stood gazing around in wonder.
"Where the hell are we?" Luxord whispered.
Axel studied his gloved hands in the dim lighting, stretching and curling his fingers slowly. There was a certain weight to the movement that he'd lost when he was in her memory…but now he could feel it.
It was the weight of existence.
"Forget that. How did we even get here?"
"We've been summoned."
He tore his gaze from his hands and looked to the top of the staircase where Xemnas and Saix stood. "Maxiin needs our assistance in subduing her darkness for good," Xemnas declared quietly, his goldenrod eyes glowing.
"Maxie brought us here?" Larxene half-laughed. "Well where is she?"
"Most likely, she's still outside this castle," Saix murmured, "and she'll need to come inside to hunt her darkness."
"And how does she expect to win against it?" Larxene crossed her arms and leaned on one leg. "She's a mess."
He didn't like admitting that Larxene was right, but he couldn't disagree with her description of the girl. She really was a mess. She was indecisive, overly ambitious, delusional, a bit of a suck-up in a sense…
"She'll find a way."
Axel turned to the voice and found himself staring at Zexion, of all people. "I am confident that she won't fail," he went on with a peculiar light in his visible eye, "simply because she refuses to."
A strange, almost reverent silence echoed after his words. Axel sensed the air shift in the dark foyer…There was still a definite thickness in it, but it wasn't filled with scorn. He knitted his brow as he tried to find the words to describe the new chemistry in the air.
"She really is something, huh?" Xigbar snickered, setting his hands on his hips. "That brat."
What was it called…What were they breathing in at this moment…?
He watched lopsided grins appear on Zexion and Luxord's faces. He saw Larxene straighten her posture and allow a corner of her mouth to quirk upwards. He furrowed his brow when he noticed Saix and Xemnas glance at each other with the same peculiar light in their eyes that Zexion had.
Suddenly, it clicked. The words exploded in his mind and raced through his body: Determination. Confidence. Hope.
"Heartless!"
He snapped out of his amazement and caught sight of yellow-eyed dark figures bursting into being all around them, hovering and swaying and shuffling. They all seemed to chuckle mockingly as they stared them down. They filled the room from wall to wall, covering every inch of tile floor.
Axel straightened and curled his hands into fists. So that was it: Imani needed her friends to help her through this. Without them, she had no hope. Without her, they had no hope, either.
Okay then.
"Looks like we need to clear a path," Luxord noted mildly.
Xemnas nodded once before allowing dark miasma to swallow him. "Split up and keep in touch," he commanded.
Heat blasted in his palms as his chakram spun into his grasp. It was time to bring this whole mess to a close. "Okay then," he growled. "Bring it."
Author's Afterthought: Thanks for reading! Please leave a review and let me know what you think.